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-7- <br /> <br />13 <br />sent because he had been "attacked" be the Utes. <br />In late Septer,ber, ?Sajor T'.:omns T. Thornburgh was ,ordered <br />to march south from Fort Fred Steele to help Meeker. Thornburoh's <br />detachment of 19.0 men was ambushed by the Utes along :Milk Creek. <br />The attack was not provoked except for the Fact that Thornburgh <br />had gotten his communications with Meeker an d. the Indian chief <br />14 <br />Douglas mixed up. His men were nearly wiped out. <br />By early October, 1879 troops were dispatched to help <br />save the Thornburgh detachment. Captain F. S. Dodge with his <br />Negro soldiers arrived to help followed shortly by Colonel <br />Ldesley Merrit. <br />In the meantime, the Utes attacked the White River agency, <br /> <br />killing all the white males they could find and ta::ing Mrs. <br />Pfeeker, her daughter, Josephine, and :ors. Shadrack Price <br />15 <br />hostage. <br />The Ute uprising came to an end when Chief Ouray was agile <br /> <br />to pursuade his Northern Ute brothers to lay down their arms <br />and surrender the hostages. When this was done a panel of <br />inquiry was established and the Utes were found to have been <br />guilty of an uprising. The main leaders, Johnson, Douglas, <br />and Colorow, were jailed for a short time in Leavenworth, <br />Y.ansas. The outcome of the entire affair was that the Utes lost <br />all of northwestern Colorado. They were removed to Utah in 1881 <br />16 <br />and the land was thrown open to all settlers in 1882. <br />While the Utes remained in the northwest corner of the <br />state, there were few settlers. Only a handful of hardy souls <br />tried to.live in land that was Indian. In 1872, a }~cax of <br />